Come now, almighty King, help us thy name to sing, help us to praise, Father of Glorious,
oral victorious, come and reign over us, ancient of days.
Come, thou incarnate Word, gird on thy mighty sword, our prayer attend.
Come, and thy people bless, and give thy word success, Spirit of holiness, own us, be sin.
Come, holy Comforter, thy sacred witness bear, in this glad hour.
Come, thou who, almighty Art, now ruled in every heart, and there from us depart Spirit of bar.
To the Great One in three eternal praises be, and sever more, his sovereign majesty now in glory see,
and to eternity, love in the door.
Next hymn is 160, Crown Him With Many Crowns. 160, one page over.
A music on its own, awake my soul and sing of him who died for thee, and hail him as thy matchless King through all eternity.
Crown him the Lord of love, behold his hands and side, rich wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight, but downward Vince's wandering eye had mysteries so bright.
Crown him the Lord of life, who triumphed o'er the grave, who rose victorious to the strife for those he came to save.
His glories now we sing, who died and rose on high, who died eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.
Crown him the Lord of men, one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given from yonder glorious throne,
to thee be endless praise, for the for all has died. Be thou alone through endless days, adored and magnified.
Amen. Welcome to Shore Foundation Baptist Church for the evening service.
Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements quicker than this morning.
All right, anybody need a bulletin? Just lift up your hand if you do. Anybody need one besides kids?
All right, ignore kids, ignore. All right, on our front cover we have our verse of the week.
It says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
On our inside we have the service times, 1030 a.m. for the morning service.
Sunday evening service, 3.30 p.m. will be in Joshua chapter 3 tonight.
Thursday evening Bible study, 6.30 p.m. we're in 1 Chronicles.
And so many times listed below we had so many. Did anybody get any salvations?
One, we did get one. All right, so praise the Lord. I heard that this is a rough area.
So praise the Lord for that one. Salvation, our praise report, you can see the stats below there.
On the opposite page there we have our upcoming holiday schedule going on here.
Like it or not, we're in the end times of the last two months of the year.
So we've got the missions conference going on.
I know, like I said, we have a couple, like a few different families that are going for that.
And you can catch the sermons. They're starting Wednesday and going through Sunday for all the missions trips that have been going on.
And there's been so many that it's hard to keep up with.
But you can catch those on Rumble and also on whatever Pastor Anderson channel is going on that week or that day.
So again, you have to be subscribed to the newsletter in order to know that right now.
I think there's been a couple weeks it's been on the same channel.
So anyway, November 14th, homeschool field trip to Skyzone Trampoline Park. That's 11 a.m. to 1230 p.m.
And November 16th is the Super Soul winning time for Saturday, November 16th, 12 to 4 p.m.
Again, you can come in at any point you want there.
Unless it's the one minute before 4 o'clock, 3.59, you're going to be outside the camp for that one.
But it's going to be in Longview and we're going to have dinner at Stuffy's 2 restaurant after the soul winning.
We're going to meet there. Meals are provided and you can see the bracketed stuff in there.
You can have dessert and appetizer if that's counting towards your meal.
Water will be served for free if you want any other soft drinks that's on you.
All right. I know that seems cheap, but it adds up.
Trust me, that German place without adding any of that stuff was very expensive.
But it was really good.
Stuffy's, you're going to get stuff. That's the reason why it's called Stuffy's.
They have really big plates of food there.
They have a cinnamon roll that's like this big.
So if you want to get a cinnamon roll for your meal, then that's fine.
You and your family may eat that cinnamon roll.
That's just like instant diabetes. If you get that, you will get diabetes.
All right. So anyway, that's going to be happening the 16th, which is not too far out from here.
The Pi Social, the week of Thanksgiving, Tuesday.
If you show up Thursday, the rapture didn't happen.
You just didn't pay attention to the bulletin.
All right. And the rapture can't come before the tribulation.
All right. And that's the Pi Social.
Bring a pie, or just bring yourself if you can.
You don't have to bring a pie to come.
I'm sure there'll be plenty, but if you want to, you're more than welcome to do that.
Children's Christmas Choir Practice will start on the Sunday after Thanksgiving,
which will be December 1st.
And December 7th is a cookie exchange.
See Juju for the details on that.
We don't have a time yet.
She had a migraine last night, so she couldn't tell me what time it was.
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyway, I just didn't get the answer.
Do you know what time it is?
You don't know? Okay, so she doesn't know.
We are waiting for the details on that.
So you can pin her down after the service and make her confess, as the heretic she is.
Anyway, December 15th, Dr. Stringer is preaching for us both services.
December 22nd is going to be our Christmas service.
We're going to have the children's choir singing in the morning.
We're going to have a dinner in between services.
We're going to have the potluck, but the church will provide the meat for the service.
So we'll probably do ham.
We'll probably do some kind of roast.
Maybe bring back a couple prime ribs.
But we're probably not going to do the giant prime rib dinner ever again.
But we might have a few.
We might do a mixture.
Some of you all like ham.
The ham was pretty good last year, too.
Maybe we'll just do a combination.
Lamb, ham, prime rib, and something like that.
We'll do a combination.
I don't know. Lamb is never anything I've ever done before.
But lamb is good if it's cooked correctly.
Anyway, that's all I have for announcements.
We sing happy birthday to everybody.
Blah, blah, blah.
All right, let's sing another song.
We'll receive the offering.
All right, Fairest Lord Jesus on 459.
O thou of God and will the Son
be will I cherish, be will I honor,
thou my soul's glory, joy and crown.
There are the meadows, there are still the woodlands,
Wrote in the blooming garb of spring.
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the awful heart to sing.
There is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
An o'er the twinkling story post.
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer,
An o'er the angels' end can boast.
Beautiful Savior, Lord of all the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man.
Glory and honor, praise adoration,
Thou and forevermore be thine.
Amen.
This time, we'll take the offering.
Brother Mikey, can you bless the offering?
Thank you, Lord, for keeping the rain for another day
so that we could soul win a little while.
And if we could just open it up to you, please.
Bless the pastor.
Thank you, Lord, for keeping the rain for another day so that we could soul win a little while.
Thank you, Lord, for keeping the rain for another day.
Then ye shall remove from your place and go after it.
Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure.
Come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go,
for ye have not passed this way heretofore.
And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves,
for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
And Joshua spake unto the priest, saying,
Take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the people.
And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
And the Lord said unto Joshua,
This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel,
that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying,
When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.
And Joshua said unto the children of Israel,
Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God.
And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you,
and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites,
and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites,
and the Gergashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan.
Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man.
And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord,
the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of Jordan,
that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above,
and they shall stand upon and heap.
And it came to pass, when the people were moved from their tents to pass over Jordan,
and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,
and as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan,
and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water,
for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of the harvest,
that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon and heap very far from the city Adam,
that is beside Zertane.
And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off,
and the people passed over right against Jericho.
And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan,
and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.
Brother Brandon, will you pray for us?
Alright, we're back in the book of Joshua here,
and we kind of have been taking some pretty big breaks in between,
but in this passage here we find the culmination of many years of promises of God,
even from the book of Genesis where he promised Abraham
that he would give the land of Canaan to his sons and their sons,
and honestly God said that he would give it to his seed, which meant Christ of course,
but there's dual fulfillments of that also where he did give it to the children of Abraham also,
but it's not based upon just unconditional.
The children of Israel did have conditions upon which he would give it to them,
because time and time again they failed, and then eventually God would get sick of them
just like he's gotten sick of the Canaanites and throw them and cast them out of the land as well.
But this moment that we're at here in the book of Joshua is a culmination
of God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for their children to inherit the land
and to go into the promised land, the land of milk and honey,
and this inheritance comes through battles.
They don't just get to walk in, walk into their houses, walk into their fruit trees,
and just get to take over all their stuff.
They do have to fight for it.
They're gonna have to battle for it, and God is going to be leading them
and empowering them to do so, and they are going to have to have this conquest,
and they are gonna have to utterly destroy this people like God commanded them to do,
or they're not gonna be able to take all the land.
So if you remember in the first chapter, Joshua gets the charge of the Lord.
He is given the power after Moses dies to be the leader,
and he's ordained to do so.
Moses lays hands upon him before he dies, and then Joshua becomes a leader.
He gets a special charge from God to do so, and then chapter two,
Joshua sends two spies instead of sending 12 spies,
and he was one of the two spies that went in with Caleb,
and he's like, well, maybe we should just send two this time
because the two had the good report last time,
and those two spies were protected by Rahab.
Rahab the what? The harlot, right?
And Rahab the harlot was probably an unexpected blessing to them.
They probably didn't expect her to stick up for them like she did
and hid the spies, lied for them, protected them, and then they've come back.
They spied out Jericho.
This is the first place that they're supposed to come and annihilate and destroy,
and Rahab was promised that her and anybody in her household
was going to be protected as long as they stayed in her house
and she puts out the scarlet thread, right?
So this is kind of where we're at, and so the title of the sermon tonight
is Stepping Out by Faith, Stepping Out by Faith,
and the first point of my sermon is that faith may require that we wait,
and they've been waiting a long time.
They initially thought they were going to go 40 years earlier into the promised land,
but because of the rebellion of the children of Israel,
because of the evil report of the spies, they've had to wait, haven't they?
And now they're waiting again.
Look at verse number one. It says,
And Joshua arose early in the morning,
and they were removed from Shittim and came to Jordan,
he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
So they didn't just go from that place and go straight across the river
and straight over to Jericho to destroy it.
They're still waiting. This thing is taking a process.
They've got hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
It's not the women and children with them anymore.
This is just the soldiers. They've been left back in the land
in the gated areas that they've already taken over,
and they are just going with the soldiers.
So the soldiers are going to war, and they're going to pass over,
but according to some maps that I looked at,
the journey from Shittim to Jericho is about seven to eight miles,
and then, of course, the Jordan River is the big boundary that they have to cross.
They didn't have the I-5 Bridge or the Glenn-Jackson Bridge
to be able to cross over,
and the Bible is going to tell if you were paying attention,
you had to cross over at a time when it's the harvest,
when it's the fullest and most raging part of the time that the river could be flowing.
Of course, God likes, you know, He has a little bit of a flair for the drama,
and He wants to make it the greatest miracle that could possibly be.
When they cross over the Jordan, God's going to stop the river from flowing
and let them pass over on dry ground,
and it's not going to be when it's the dead drought of summer.
It's going to be at the time of harvest when it's flowing the biggest that it can be.
So, Joshua chapter 3 verse 2 says,
And it came to pass after three days that the officers went through the host.
So, the officers now, they're going to go through the host.
These are the ones that are in charge of the different,
so the different tribes have different amounts of soldiers that they're in charge of,
and so how long have they been sitting there waiting for?
Three days.
So, they get to their spot, and they're waiting.
So, they leave Shittim, they wait there three days so they're camped out,
and, you know, sometimes our faith does require that we wait for stuff.
Sometimes we just want to hurry up and get things done as fast as we can,
but in this situation, with all these thousands of soldiers,
they're marching, I mean, seven to eight miles is a long ways to walk,
and it's a long way to have their, whatever animals that they're on,
or some of them, most of them are probably just walking on foot,
and, you know, it's after a long, hard day of marching,
it's probably, you know, good to get rested, get fed, get hydrated, get a plan ready,
and the most important thing is it's probably, you know,
the best thing to do is to wait for God's instructions on what to do next,
because this isn't just some regular military.
This is a military that's run by God.
God is the main commander in this military.
He's the head of the armies of Israel,
and if you notice, like, in the Bible reading,
who are the ones that are going before everybody else?
It's the priests, isn't it?
It's the priests that are carrying the Ark of the Covenant before them,
and in the next chapter, you're going to see that these priests
are the ones that are walking around Jericho,
and they're the ones that are blowing the trumpets,
and doing, you know, they're the ones that are doing what God says to do,
then all the people rush in afterwards.
So these armies are led also by the priests.
The priests don't just do only spiritual things.
The priests are actually leading them into battle.
So, and this kind of shows, you know, in our spiritual life,
as Christians later on in the New Testament,
that God doesn't just have the leaders just only doing spiritual things.
You know, spiritually, we are the children of God,
and we are in God's army.
We are battling also.
We are in a spiritual war, and God's leaders have to lead that war.
And so we don't just sit, the leaders don't just sit around and do nothing.
The leaders have to be able to lead into battle also.
You can't just have, you know, leaders that don't lead.
So, now, also, you know, we can make an application in our lives with this too.
Also, we, you know, we like to hard charge in a situation in our lives.
Some people just like to just get things done, and get it done fast,
and we don't really like to wait.
But sometimes it's good to pray and wait.
You know, big decisions that we make in our lives, you know.
We should take time to think and pray about those things,
because making a big decision has big ramifications.
If you have a family, you know, even if you are single,
you know, there's big decisions that we make in our life
that can have ramifications that last for many years of our lives,
where you're going to live, where you're going to go to church,
and having important discussions with people.
You can have a discussion with somebody that has ramifications
that can last for years.
Maybe that discussion doesn't go well.
Maybe that person is close to you,
and the discussion doesn't go the way that you thought it was going to,
because you didn't think about all the things that you were going to say.
And that discussion gets heated,
and you say things that you didn't mean to say,
and sometimes those discussions can be, they can go in a way
you didn't intend for it to go to,
and you say things that you didn't intend on saying,
and then those things last for a long time and can ruin relationships.
So it's important that we think and pray about the things that we're going to do,
and not just hard charge into every single situation in our life.
So it is good to wait sometimes before we make a major decision,
and it does show a lack of faith, excuse me,
it does not show a lack of faith to wait for things.
It's not like, oh, you just don't have any faith.
That's why you're just waiting.
No, you know, the Bible teaches us that sometimes
we shouldn't be too hasty to make decisions.
Let's look at a few verses.
Let's look at Proverbs chapter 21 verse 5.
Now, what does it mean to be hasty?
Well, there is a couple different definitions of hasty,
but hasty in this instance would be
acting with excessive speed or insufficient consideration.
Sometimes you can make a hasty decision that's like
you're just going too fast.
You know, like when you start a new job,
and you try to go faster than you should,
you know, when you're going through training,
they want you to go as fast as you're able to go,
not so fast that you're going to make a bunch of mistakes
and screw things up.
I'm sure, I would ask for a raise of hands,
but I'm not going to do that,
but I'm sure everybody's done this.
You want to try to do the best you can,
and sometimes you act with haste at a new job
and just try to go too fast, and then you screw something up.
It's just like it's better to just know how to do something
and get the repetition down
than it is to just hastily try to do something
or wing something, you know.
A lot of people are wingers, you know,
where you just think, oh yeah, I can do this.
I don't, you know.
And then you wing something,
and you wing it to the point
where you screw something up really bad,
and then they're more mad at the fact
that you tried to wing something and didn't ask a question
than they are that you screwed it up.
So, you know, it's okay to make mistakes,
but if you're just doing it because, you know,
you're just being too hasty, then bosses don't like that.
They'd rather have you slow down
and then get the speed later
than make a bunch of mistakes
and cost a bunch of money that you don't have to cost.
So it says, yeah, so being hasty is acting
with excessive speed or insufficient consideration.
You say things before you mean,
you say something that you shouldn't have said.
You can't take that stuff back sometimes.
You can apologize, but sometimes you say things
that are too hasty, and people, you know,
you can't really take it back.
You can apologize, and people might accept your apology,
but you might have said something
that was way too, you went way too far.
Or you went too fast on something,
and you can't take that back.
You know, you took a job, and then you took another job.
You quit that job before you,
you know, somebody offered you another one,
and you were like, oh, I quit.
And then you took that other job,
and that other job sucked,
and you should have stuck with the other job.
You know what I mean?
That's hasty.
So Proverbs 21, verse five says,
the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness,
but of everyone that is hasty only to want.
So that's a verse teaching about being too hasty.
Look at Proverbs 29, 20.
Proverbs 29, 20.
And this is, of course, speaking about someone
that's hasty with their words.
Too quick to say something,
and we should be slow to speak, the Bible talks about.
Quick, you know, we should be quick to hear,
but slow to speak.
That's being too hasty with your mouth.
Proverbs 29, 20 says,
seest thou a man that is hasty in his words?
There's more hope of a fool than of him.
So people that say, I have no filter.
Well then, you are a fool.
There's more hope of a fool than you.
Isn't that what the Bible says?
Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words?
You're too quick to say something.
You have insufficient consideration
with the things that are about to come out of your mouth.
People act like that's a badge of honor
to say, I have no filter.
You're just a fool.
You should have a filter.
You know, a filter means that you're,
if you say you have no filter,
that means just anything that comes to your brain,
you puke out of your mouth.
And that's a stupid thing
because we have a lot of foolish thoughts
that come into our brain,
and to just say everything that comes out of our mouth
is very unwise.
And especially as a Christian,
you know, it's really easy to hurt people's feelings.
It's really easy to say things
that are hurtful to people.
Our mouth is like, you know, deadly poison.
You know, we can say things with our tongue
that we ought not to,
and the Bible says that we can't tame the tongue.
So if we can do our best to try, though, we should, right?
Turn to Proverbs, let's see.
Actually, go to Ecclesiastes 5.1.
Ecclesiastes 5.1.
So all I'm saying, though, is that, you know,
if you're gonna do something in faith,
sometimes it's best to have that faith, wait to do things.
There's nothing wrong with just waiting for a little bit.
Sometimes people will be like,
you need to make a decision right now.
Well, sometimes that's warranted, but it's not always.
And especially if it's a huge decision in your life,
I'm gonna offer you this job right now.
You have to take it right now.
It's like, well, I gotta give my employer two weeks notice.
And now that might not seem,
that's not a big deal to people,
but if you give someone a two weeks notice,
a lot of times they'll just fire you, which is wrong.
I still recommend to anybody that ever asked me this,
you know, just, you still do the right thing,
and if they fire you, then God's gonna bless you
for still doing the right thing.
But it's kind of a hard situation,
because if you're counting all that money to survive,
and then someone fires you when you say,
you give them two weeks, but still you did the right thing,
and God's still gonna bless you for that thing.
I believe that.
Ecclesiastes 5.1 says,
Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God,
and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools
for they consider not that they do evil.
Be not rash with thy mouth,
and let not thine heart be hasty
to utter anything before God.
And a lot of people, you know,
I've heard people say this as a pastor,
I've heard this a lot.
I'm gonna start coming to church all the time,
three times a week.
I've heard people say that,
or I'm gonna start doing this more.
Look, I've heard this a lot,
and that's being hasty with your mouth
to utter things before God,
because you're not really promising me,
you shouldn't promise me anything.
Look, if you live two, three hours away,
and then you're like, I'm gonna come every,
don't tell me that,
because that's a long ways away,
and it's hard.
I realize that that's hard.
I mean, I drove just from Spokane
to Tri-Cities one time
and saw how far Robert Larson is driving
and how boring that drive is
that he did for years.
I was just like, I don't know how he does this.
I don't know how he did this for all those years.
That's faithfulness.
I mean, that is like the boringest drive ever.
There's like literally nothing.
There's just grass fields and highway
and cops and fog in the wintertime, I'm sure, and snow.
But don't say that you're gonna do something before God
and then not do what you say you're gonna do.
He'd rather you just not say anything
than to say something hasty out of your mouth.
He says, for God is in heaven and thou upon earth,
therefore let thy words be few.
It's better to just not say anything
than say a bunch of things that you don't mean
or things that you really can't promise
that you're gonna do.
It says, for a dream cometh through the multitude of business
and a fool's voice is known by a multitude of words.
So the more you jabber, the harder it's gonna be for you
and so it's best to just be quiet
than to say a bunch of stuff that you can't do.
So point number one was faith may require that we wait
and so again, making big decisions in your life
or doing, I was talking about this morning,
making major decisions on a Monday.
Do I wanna pass her still or do I wanna quit the ministry?
Don't make that decision on Monday.
My wife back there shaking her head.
I don't think about that, okay?
I mean, maybe every once in a while I do
but I'm just saying that that's not the day
to make that decision.
Be careful about just making big decisions
on times when you, especially when you,
even if you're feeling a certain way,
hey, think about that, pray about that.
Wait until you're in a right mind frame to make decisions
because when you're angry or you're depressed
or you're down and low,
that is not the right time to make decisions.
That is the worst time to make a big decision in your life.
I'm just so depressed I'm gonna quit.
That's a dumb time to make a decision
or I'm just so angry about what so and so said to me
at church, it's like that's the worst time
to make that decision.
You need to just take some time
and pray about stuff like that and think about stuff
and you're gonna get over that anger pretty quickly.
Most normal people don't just stay mad about stuff like that.
We should be able to get over stuff quickly.
Jesus got over stuff pretty quickly for us, didn't he?
I mean, the fact that he died for all of our sins
didn't have to do that but he did.
I mean, he forgave us for everything.
We should be able to forgive people for looking at us side-eyed.
I mean, my granddaughter looks at me side-eyed sometimes.
Hannah, she'll just be like,
she's one years old.
Well, I forgive her instantly.
I love her.
Anyway, number two tonight,
faith recognizes that sometimes God chooses
to work in new ways.
Now, obviously in the New Testament,
there's a lot of things that are just kind of fixed in stone.
But back in this chapter here,
they are kind of being asked to do something
that they haven't been asked to do.
And so God will ask us to do things,
you know, in the Bible you see God asking them
to do things in new ways,
but why don't you just take it like this?
Sometimes God asks us to do things
that are out of our comfort zone.
Things that you're not used to doing.
Maybe doing a new task or doing something else
in the church that you, you know,
or just even in your new job
or just in your family.
Maybe you just want to do something different
and maybe God wants you to do something in a new way.
You know, and sometimes you'll see something in the Bible,
you're like, well, I never thought about doing it like this.
Maybe I should do something like this.
Look at verse number two in our text.
It says, and it came to pass after three days
that the officers went through the host
and they commanded the people,
saying, when you see the ark of the covenant
of the Lord your God
and the priests and the Levites bearing it,
then you shall remove from your place
and go after it.
So what are they telling them to do?
Follow the ark.
Isn't that what they're saying?
When you see the priests and the Levites bearing it,
then you shall remove from your place.
So they're waiting in the camp for three days
and then they say, when you see the priests move it,
then you go after it.
It doesn't say go after the Levites or the priests.
It says go after it.
What do they mean?
Go after the ark of the covenant.
So they're being asked to follow the ark, aren't they?
So follow, you know, and what does the ark represent?
The presence of the Lord.
When they have the tabernacle set up,
where does the presence of the Lord come to?
It comes to the top, you know, goes into the tent,
the tabernacle, and it meets on the mercy seat
on the top of the ark of the covenant.
So they're bearing this ark.
That's how they were supposed to carry it.
The Levites were supposed to carry it, right?
And so they're being told to follow that piece of equipment,
that ark, and it represents the presence of the Lord.
So, and then it says,
yet there shall be a space between you and it,
about 2,000 cubits by measure, come not near unto it,
that you may know the way by which you must go,
for you have not passed this way heretofore.
So you have God's presence symbolized
by the ark of the covenant,
and they had not gone to this point before.
This is the point where they have not come yet.
They're in the wilderness all this time,
they've been in Egypt, they've come this way,
but they're going into a spot they have not been to before.
And so what are they saying?
They're saying, hey, when the Levites pick up the ark
and start to go, you follow that ark.
You watch that ark and you follow it,
but keep a distance between yourself and that ark,
keep about 2,000 cubits of measure.
And I don't know if they had like,
you know, some kind of ruler or something,
but they probably knew roundabout way how much distance.
And you know, they didn't play football back then,
I'm talking about American football here by the way,
but it's about eight football fields in length.
That's how far away they were supposed to keep from the ark.
So they weren't supposed to just walk right up on it,
but I mean, you gotta imagine there's thousands
of people here, if they were real close to it,
then not everybody would be able to see.
So they're telling them, follow the line of sight
of this ark.
So they need to keep the distance
so that they can be guided into this territory
that they've never been to before,
and the ark is supposed to be leading them
to the place that they're going.
So they need God's guidance in going to a place
that they've never been to before.
And so when we step out by faith
and God asks us to do something new,
it's the same thing for us.
We have to be willing to follow the Lord
and his guidance in something
because that is what stepping out by faith is, isn't it?
Where we recognize that God has chosen
some new thing for us to do,
well we gotta follow God's guidance through that thing.
And we gotta keep our eyes on God
while we're doing that thing.
And so here the officers are telling the soldiers
they're not saying watch us and follow us,
they're not saying watch the Levites and follow them,
they're not saying watch Joshua and follow him,
he's your leader, they're saying what?
Watch the ark and follow it.
Because really that's representing the Lord, isn't it?
So this is not something they've been asked to do before.
They followed the cloud during the day
and the pillar of fire by night
and that's when God would tell them hey it's time to move,
he would remove that cloud
and then they would have to pack up everything and move
and stuff like that.
But what was in the ark?
What was in there?
What did they keep in the ark?
Does anybody know?
The tablets of the commandments.
The new ones, right?
Aaron's rod that butted and the manna, okay?
So what do those things represent?
The covenant that God made which was the 10 commandments.
Aaron's rod that butted that Aaron and the Levites
were the ones that were the priests
and more importantly that Aaron is the high priest
and which of course does represent Jesus Christ
and the law and then you got the manna
which represents what?
The word of God, right?
And it also represents the son of God
who came down from heaven.
Like if you follow in the book of John
but they're supposed to focus on that
because that is them focusing on the things of God, right?
So and then the officers are telling them
to not look at them, look to Jesus.
That's basically,
I mean they don't know the name of Jesus obviously
but that's really what they're kind of saying.
Focus on the Lord.
Focus on the things of God
and that's what good leadership will tell you.
You know I don't say hey focus on me.
Focus on what the Bible says.
Focus on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the head of our church
and good leadership is gonna tell you that.
So and the ark was like their compass to focus on.
I mean who's ever used a compass in here before?
You know it points north
and so when you get lost
you know that the compass is gonna point you
in the right direction so they're kind of using the ark
as a compass to direct people on which way to go.
I mean again you're talking about
thousands and thousands of people
and so they're saying keep your distance
so you can see it
because you know it's made out of gold.
I'm sure the sun is shining.
You can probably not miss the sun shining off of that ark
overlay with pure gold.
You know the sun hits that you can't miss it right?
So they're focusing on that
and then they're focusing on the ark
and they were to respect that
and keep a healthy distance from it.
So they weren't supposed to come up on it
but they were supposed to be close enough
to not lose sight of it.
So you know and this chapter
is the most concentrated chapter
where you have the ark mentioned in,
you have it mentioned in eight verses 10 times
in the 17 verses.
So this chapter has the most mentions of the ark
in the most concentrated amount of times
and there's only 17 verses in this chapter.
So what is the main focal point of this chapter?
Well it's the ark.
So now that you know that,
as we go through the chapter,
notice how many times it mentions the ark in this chapter.
The ark is the focal word of this chapter
and so kind of pay attention to that
as we continue to go through here
but you know we need to recognize
when we ourselves have lost track of the ark.
When we have lost track of Jesus in our daily lives
and when our focus has gotten off Jesus,
we need to focus on the things of God.
You know when we lose our compass
in our daily lives of spiritual things
like reading the Bible and prayer
and soul winning and just going to church,
you know the basic things that we're supposed to be doing,
then we've lost our compass
and we need to get our bearings back again.
And you know it's good to have,
today we can be as close to Jesus as we want.
In the Old Testament yeah they had to keep
a certain distance but you know in the New Testament
there still should be a little bit of a mystique with Jesus.
Of course he's our Lord and Savior
and he is our friend but he's also our Lord and Master
and we should never lose sight of that.
We shouldn't be irreverent where we're going like
oh Jesus is my buddy in talking irreverently
and having wearing t-shirts where it's just saying
like irreverent things about him.
You know what I mean?
We shouldn't get to the point where we're just like
you know just being irreverent about Jesus.
So like what I'm saying is like
we can still use that distance,
you know obviously we want to be close to Jesus
and we should be close to Jesus
but we should still have some distance
where we like know hey he's still our Lord
so we should still have a healthy respect
and so when we look at this passage
hey they were told to have a healthy respect,
keep a healthy distance from him or from the ark
but also stay close enough
where you can still keep sight of him.
So today if we apply this as Christians
hey we should have a healthy respect
but also we should stay close.
We should still be able to see Jesus in our daily life.
We shouldn't just go days and days and days
where we're not talking to him,
we're not reading about him,
he's not part of our active daily life,
he's not part of our family's life.
We should hey and if we've gotten to that point
we need to refocus our compass
and start looking at Jesus, looking unto Jesus.
So don't become too casual with the Almighty.
Don't become so casual you're just like
you know my sky daddy or whatever
or my pop you know where you're just being irreverent
but also knowing that we can still be close to him.
Number three tonight,
faith means that we're willing to step out.
Faith means that we're willing to step out.
Sometimes we get to our comfort zones
and we're like I'm never gonna do that.
But sometimes we gotta be willing to do that
and that is faith.
Sometimes faith, you know faith is just that,
it challenges us to do more than we're used to doing.
To step out and do more.
Look at verse five in our text here it says,
in verse five and Joshua said unto the people
sanctify yourselves for tomorrow
the Lord will do wonders among you.
So Joshua's telling the people sanctify yourself.
What does that mean?
Well it means to make holy, to set yourselves apart.
Wash up, wash your clothes.
There's been times when he says
to wash your clothes and don't come at your wives,
clean up your act, get right with God.
So you know sometimes it just means
like if you're filthy then clean up.
It can actually mean that.
But you know obviously what's on the inside
we need to clean what's on the inside
then worry what's on the outside.
But God doesn't like walking through the camp
and having dung all over the place.
So you know he said if you have a weapon
you know you have a little paddle,
tie a little paddle on it and bury it
you know when you're out camping.
If you've ever been really roughing it
there's been times when you probably had to
you know use that paddle and you're supposed to
go outside of the camp and do that.
Bury it or whatever.
But Joshua's saying sanctify yourselves.
Make yourself clean.
You know and I would just say this.
When you need to sanctify yourself
just clean up.
But clean up spiritually.
You know confess your sins to God.
You know and there should be a daily
or you know at least when you're thinking about it
because we sin everyday let's just be honest with ourselves
there should be times when we sanctify ourselves
and get right with God.
Because there's not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good and sin is not.
Nobody's always right with God
so we need to get ourselves right with God
and that's what he's talking about sanctify yourselves.
Verse five or verse six excuse me.
And Joshua spake unto the priest saying
take up the ark of the covenant
and pass over before the people.
And they took up the ark of the covenant
and went before the people.
And the Lord said unto Joshua
this day will I begin to magnify thee
in the sight of all Israel
that they may know that as I was with Moses
so I will be with thee.
So you have Joshua saying sanctify the people.
Joshua speaks unto the priest tells the priest what to do.
And then you have the Lord speaking directly to Joshua.
This day I will magnify thee in the sight of all Israel.
So at this point he doesn't have the status
I mean he has the leadership
but Moses has obviously did all these miracles
led them out of Egypt
and they never obeyed Moses really.
I mean I'm sure that there was times that they did
but how much rebellion was in their hearts
how much did they rebel against Moses a lot.
And then you have Joshua who the people do obey
and how many miracles do you see Joshua do?
You don't really see Joshua do a lot of miracles right?
But God still magnifies him nonetheless.
And this is where he begins to do it.
Up until this point Joshua was the leader
but in many ways just a normal everyday guy.
What did he do?
He was the servant of Moses.
He was the attendant of Moses.
And of course he was a great guy and a loyal servant
and when he went out to spy at the land
he was like no we can do this.
So it's not like he wasn't a great man of God
but he just wasn't doing miracles
and you really don't see him doing miracles
in this book either.
But he still was magnified to a point
where he was magnified in the sight of all Israel
that they may know that as I was with Moses
so I'll be with thee.
So he's still on the level of leadership
that Moses was with but Moses had to be set apart
in a different way because Jesus was prophesied
to be like unto Moses.
So there couldn't really be anybody like Moses
until Jesus came.
Of course there was other prophets that did miracles
but Jesus was the only one that was like Moses
where he spoke to him face to face and all that stuff.
But it is interesting that like Jesus
Joshua was just an average guy until when?
Until God magnified him in front of all the people
when he was 30 years old.
Because I mean think about it.
Jesus was born and yes he was worshiped
by the wise men from the east.
You know of course we celebrate Christmas
and that's what we celebrate.
Jesus being you know the angels sang or said
you know look who's born in Bethlehem and all that stuff
and then they came to worship him.
But I mean aside from that we don't really see
Jesus doing any, there's no miracles
unless you look at these heretics that write
all these crazy things saying that the gospel of Thomas
and the gospel of Judas and all this stuff
that's just complete trash that Jesus like killed people
and you know when he was mad when they broke his toys
or something but that's all garbage.
Like that's all just extra biblical nonsense.
But anyway I don't want to get off on that.
But when Jesus was 12 years old he was asking
questions to the doctors of the law and the lawyers
and they went back to Jerusalem.
I mean but that wasn't like a miracle or something.
He just was really smart and knew the scriptures well.
And so but like from his birth to the time
he was 30 years old he wasn't doing all these miracles
that we could see.
He was magnified in front of the people
when he was 30 years old.
He gets baptized and then he goes out
and starts doing all the works right.
So Joshua's kind of like him in that way
where Joshua doesn't get magnified until this point.
But even so Joshua doesn't do a bunch
of miracles at this point.
So but he does have the military prowess to go out
and help them conquer everything in the land.
So God does magnify men to fulfill his will
and he does expect us to follow the leadership
that he does provide.
And we live in a world where leadership is spit on.
We live in a world where Christians you know
will spit on their leadership.
They'll spit on the leadership that's put in front of us
as the government.
And you know it's not right.
Now as far as them being wicked,
like if we have some wicked ruler,
of course you know that does change things.
We can preach against that wickedness.
And you know but to like be these people
who are like it needs to be like 1776.
You mean you want us to overthrow the government?
Is that what you're saying?
I'm not okay with that.
I wasn't okay with it in 1776 but I wasn't around then.
But I mean we have the system of government that we have
and we have the three different branches.
We have the checks and balances
that are supposed to be in place.
But you know that's kind of not really happening
the way it's supposed to.
Any system that the world puts in place
people will find a way to corrupt it.
And we kind of do have a corrupt system going on.
I mean because who's really running our country right now?
Do you actually think Joe Biden's
running our country right now?
Has he been for four years?
I mean he's been eating ice cream
and supposedly stuttering.
That's not stuttering okay.
That's just you know losing it.
But I would say that he's still more smart
than the one that they're trying to put
in his place right now.
Even as far gone as he is he still has more intelligence
than Kamala Harris.
But I'm not supposed to preach in favor of candidates.
That's not you know what I just condemned them all.
So I mean I don't.
But you can vote you know.
Look if you want to vote you knock yourself out.
I just don't think it really helps anything.
I think at this point it's pretty much far gone.
So far gone that we can't really fix what's in place.
I think you know I mean but if you want to do that
that's fine.
I still do vote for certain things like certain laws.
I'm gonna vote.
I'm gonna vote tomorrow.
There's certain things that I am gonna vote for.
And it's definitely you know like taking away
our natural gas so we can heat our homes.
That's just straight stupid.
So we have to just like put electric in all people's houses
and retrofit all these places.
So how are we gonna get all the electricity
to do this exactly?
We're gonna just get rid of natural gas?
I don't think so.
I'm gonna you know I'm gonna vote against that.
I don't have electric panels in my house to heat my house.
Like that's super expensive.
So welcome to super high heating bills.
And then it's gonna force a lot of people
are gonna be like well then I'm just gonna light fires.
Oh you mean like burn trees?
Isn't that bad for the environment or whatever?
You want us to burn trees?
Okay we'll burn trees.
Like I don't know.
But I mean I'm all for you know you can do
whatever you want.
You can vote for whoever you want.
If you think it's gonna help then do it, whatever.
But we do need to follow the leadership.
Obviously the highest thing that we have in this country
is the constitution.
It would be great if they actually followed it.
It'd be great if the senators and you know the house
would actually you know rule with integrity
and rule by the constitution instead of what Jew
has paid them off this month.
So that would be great if our country was run
the way it was actually supposed to run.
But unfortunately it doesn't.
But I am gonna vote for some local laws
and whatever I feel like voting for.
But I'm not gonna vote for the president.
I'm just not.
Every time I do, every time I predict a president
the other one wins.
So I'm not even gonna make a prediction this time.
Last time I thought Trump was gonna win, we got Biden.
Last time I thought Hillary was gonna win, we got Trump.
So it's just the last time I voted, Obama won.
I'm just, I'm done.
I'm just done.
I'm not helping you.
But I do understand why people wanna vote for Trump.
I really do understand it.
I understand why people want to because you know,
what's the other side?
The satanic baby killing cult?
Pure evil?
Pure communist?
Pure idiot?
Like dude, Kamala Harris is just a straight idiot.
I'm not gonna try to use the R word
because I know people get really mad about that.
But she's an idiot.
She can't even, I mean Joe Biden can't complete sentences
but neither can she.
And it's not because she has dementia,
it's just because she's an idiot.
She literally can't answer questions.
She has a teleprompter to do all of her speeches
and they're all the same speech.
Like how are you gonna fix the economy?
How are you gonna help people to afford groceries
and housing?
Well I'm from a middle class family.
That's your answer?
Just say a bunch of nothing?
I'm from a middle class family.
Yeah we know that.
You've only answered that question
a million times the same way.
She's literally a whore.
She got into politics and this,
look I'm not just saying that to be mean or crass.
She got into politics by sleeping with Willie Brown
or whatever, a married man at the time, yes.
And that's how, he appointed her to her first
political office and that's how she became,
you know got into the Senate.
She was voted the most liberal senator in the whole country
by a non-partisan, kind of just like one of those
watch type people that had no political affiliation
and voted, they put her as the most liberal senator.
She has no plan.
When she's asked if she has a plan,
she's just like, she just doesn't have an answer.
So I do understand why people want to vote for Trump.
I really do.
He does have a plan.
Drill baby drill and we're gonna do this
and we're gonna tariff and you know,
his plan sounds good.
I have to admit, it sounds good.
But at the same time, the guy has some morality issues.
And look, he's not saved and that's not a prerequisite
for me to vote for somebody necessarily.
But my brother calls him Orange Jesus, non-affectionately.
He calls him Orange Jesus.
But you know, I mean, he's extremely prideful,
there's no doubt about that.
His economy is the best that there ever was
and we had the best economy and all that kind of stuff.
But on paper, I'll take Trump any day of the week.
I understand that things might get better under him.
But like I remember the last year of his presidency,
he didn't do squat.
I remember that.
I remember him pushing for the vaccination.
Do you guys remember that?
Who's the one that did Operation Warp Speed?
It wasn't Joe Biden.
So I mean, and look, maybe he's just misguided about it
or whatever, but he's definitely, you know,
warned the yarmulke.
So I don't know.
I just, you know, if I divorce myself
from the whole voting for whichever one,
then I just know that I'm not voting for evil either way.
But you can do whatever you want.
I'm not telling you what you can,
I'm not telling you what you can do or what you can't.
Notice how Kamala does the same thing now.
She like tries to copy everything he does.
But I agree with a lot of the things he's saying,
but is he really being honest?
I don't know.
I just don't know.
Anyway, that was my commercial voting thing.
So let's look at verse eight.
And thou shalt command the priests
that bear the ark of the covenant,
saying, when ye are calm to the brink of the water
of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.
Joshua and the priest here are brought
to the brink of their new roles.
So Joshua, he's the new leader,
and then you have the officers,
and then you have the priests.
They're all kind of waiting to just, you know,
fulfill their new roles.
Very shortly, they have to take those first steps of faith
in their roles as leaders,
because they still haven't crossed the river yet.
And so it does take faith to step forward
and be in leadership.
And maybe there's some people in here
that have done steps towards being leaders,
but there's people in here that maybe want to be pastors
someday, or some kind of leadership,
and it does take faith to take steps forward to do that.
And we see that God's saying, hey,
or Joshua's saying to the priest,
hey, when you get to the brink of the river,
just stop and wait there.
And so he is, can you listen in the little things?
Can you listen, can you follow leadership?
Because he's not asking him to do something crazy here.
He's just saying, when you get there, stop.
Don't put your feet in the water.
Don't cross the river yet.
You just wait until I give you the next order.
And as leaders or followers,
we must take these steps of faith in our lives.
Decisions are placed before us all the time.
Are we gonna move back or move forward?
So going back to Shiddim
would have been a bad decision, wouldn't it?
As leaders and as Christians,
we should always be wanting to move forward in our lives,
not going backward, not going back in our progression
as becoming well-rounded Christians and good Christians,
but we never want to shrink back.
Shrinking back, retreating, backsliding,
these are all terms that are negative connotations
in the Bible.
They're like, well, I just need to shrink back for a while.
Then it's just never talked about well in the Bible.
And what are these guys doing?
He's saying, move forward and stop.
But are they gonna go back?
No, they're gonna go forward.
They're gonna go through the river.
They're gonna go to Jericho.
And then from there, they're gonna go
from every place to place, taking the promised land.
So we shouldn't refuse to have faith
to follow the God-given leadership that he puts in place.
Look, this is just how God set things up.
And as Christians, we should be the ones
that are the followers of leadership.
We should set the bar and not be the ones
that are just bashing leaders all the time
like you see happening online all the time right now,
just bashing leaders, thinking that just because
you decide that someone's not qualified
to be this or that anymore,
that you just get to drop pastor from their name.
And now all of a sudden, because you decide in your mind
that they're no longer a pastor,
that you can say whatever you want after that.
You say last name, and you drop their first name,
you drop pastor, and now you get to say whatever you want.
That's not how it works, folks.
Just because you don't like them
doesn't mean you get to drop that pastor name
in front of their name.
That's just not how it works.
It's not right.
Just because you don't follow that leader,
that person's not your leader,
doesn't mean that they're not a leader.
So to follow our faith, we must step out in faith.
And whether that's trusting God with our marriage,
whether that's trusting God in our finances,
whether that's trusting God with our daily needs,
or our health, or our children,
that they're gonna grow up,
and when we do what the Bible says,
that God's gonna protect us,
or faith that what the Bible says is true.
Because sometimes the Bible says some things,
we're like, yeah, but in our day and time,
if we do those things, we're gonna get in trouble.
Well, that's what they said to the Nazis, too.
You know, the people that were,
that's what they said in Russia.
Hey, if you spank your kids,
then we're gonna, you know,
and then your kids tell on you,
then you're gonna be in trouble.
That's what they do in some countries.
Are you still gonna spank your kids, though?
And they force them to go to public school,
they won't allow them to be homeschooled?
What are you gonna do?
It is nice that we live in America
and we haven't come to the point
where they just say you can't homeschool your children.
Germany should be a lesson to you
of how they just emasculate the whole nation,
and then just you're just a subject, test subject,
for the whole New World Order government.
Number four is faith is an opportunity that can be rejected.
Faith is an opportunity that can be rejected,
and you know, we can reject our opportunities
to exercise and step out by faith.
Look at verse nine.
It says, and Joshua said unto the children of Israel,
come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God.
And Joshua said, hereby ye shall know
that the living God is among you,
and that he will without fail
drive out from before you the Canaanites,
and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites,
and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
So if you're counting, that's seven nations.
So the Canaanites were like the umbrella, I guess,
but they still count as one of the nations.
So God had already promised in previous chapters,
and we're not gonna go to those,
but he already said he's gonna destroy those nations,
and so now he's just kind of saying it again.
Hey, God's not gonna fail.
He will without fail.
But see, they do have the opportunity to fail,
and if you've been paying attention to our study
in First Chronicles, remember the Jebusites don't get,
they don't get taken out until David and his mighty men,
you know, Joab climbs up the gutter,
and then finally, you know, takes out the halt and blind,
and they take over, and the city of David
is called the city of David because Joab,
you know, climbed up that gutter,
and then they took this, you know,
David and his men took that city.
But God never failed.
It was the people that failed to do what God was saying.
The people's faith failed.
They rejected what God was saying,
and some people just didn't conquer the places
they were supposed to conquer,
and because they didn't do that, that's their fault.
That's not God's fault.
He gave them the strength.
He gave them the ability,
but obviously they didn't have the faith,
or they rejected the opportunities
when they had the opportunity
to have that faith and step out.
So look at verse 11.
It says, behold, the ark of the covenant
of the Lord of all the earth
passeth over before you into Jordan.
And that's, you know, the ark of the covenant
of the Lord of all the earth.
He's not just the Lord of the little desert spot,
you know, like people like to say,
the bronze goat herders of Mesopotamia,
the goat herders that wrote the Bible or whatever.
No, he's the Lord of all the earth.
So he's the one that's passing over before you in Jordan.
See, God is the one that's leading the way there.
Make no mistake about it.
God is leading the way.
And remember, they're to be fixing their eyes
upon the ark as it goes.
So he is, you know, the ark is a token.
The ark is not God,
but the ark is a token of something
that's representing a fact.
It's representing the fact that God is the one
that's leading them there.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse two.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse number two.
Keep your finger here.
And the apostle Paul tells us
what we're supposed to be looking at.
This is a token, and a token is something that,
you know, represents a fact of something
that it represents something else.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse two says,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Whatever we're going through in our life,
this should be our focus that we're looking at.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God.
This is who we should be looking at.
This is who we should be looking toward.
Hey, the example that was set before us.
He is the one that endured the cross.
He despises shame, and he is set down
by the throne of God.
He accomplished the mission.
So when we're having trouble accomplishing our faith,
accomplishing our mission, we should just look unto Jesus
and go, hey, that's our example.
He already did it for us.
He showed the way.
He's our example.
He's what we should be looking towards.
Keep your eyes upon Jesus.
And he led the way for us, and you know, that song,
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus is a great song.
We sang it last week.
It's a great, great song.
And that's what we should do.
We should turn our eyes upon Jesus,
look full in his wonderful face.
The things of earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of his glory and grace, right?
So Joshua 3, 12 says, now therefore take you 12 men
of the tribes of Israel out of every tribe of man.
And it shall come to pass as soon as the souls
of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord,
the Lord of all the earth shall rest
in the waters of Jordan.
And the waters of Jordan shall be cut off
from the waters that come down from above,
and they shall stand upon and heap.
So as soon as their souls of their feet of the priests
that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth
shall rest upon the waters of Jordan,
the waters of Jordan shall be cut off.
So as soon as their foot just dips into the water,
as soon as they take that step,
then the water's just completely cut off.
So that's where they're stepping out by faith.
But think about this, the river is raging.
It's not just like they're walking out in some calm lake
or something, where you're just like, oh.
No, it's like they're stepping into something that,
you know, when you step, if you've ever been
in a raging river before, you don't really want
to put your feet in because the undertow
could just knock you off your feet
and take you down the river.
So it's not, if you're picturing this,
it's overflowed, it's like, I'm sure you've all seen
when it's raining really hard here,
and then you see a little tiny waterfall coming down,
just gushing down.
It's a lot different to step into water
that you know can take you and kill you.
So, but they have an opportunity here
to have their faith tested, and they do it.
They step out into the water.
But we have opportunities all the time
where we can act out on our faith.
But sometimes we fail to act, don't we?
We actually do fail.
We fail to talk to that person that we could've talked to,
and we kick ourselves over it.
We go, man, I should've talked to that person.
I knew I should've talked to that person.
I know they would've got saved.
And for some reason, we just kind of chicken out.
That's just the one thing I can think of
that's just like, those are the things that haunt me.
When I know I could've talked to someone and I didn't,
or when you're at a family member's house,
and you know you had that time along with them,
you could've just got something in with them,
you had that moment, and you're just like,
just some paralyzing fear grips you,
and you're just like, well, what if they just laugh at me,
or whatever.
But those are times of faith that sometimes
we fail to act on.
And one thing I know that I've done that,
I've failed, I've failed to maybe give someone an invite
or whatever, we've all done that, I'm sure.
But you know what I'm glad about?
I'm glad that we always get another chance to do it.
God gives us a lot of chances to act on our faith.
We don't just get one, it's like, you failed forever,
ah ha ha, you know, it's like, no,
God just gives us more chances.
And I'm glad for his grace.
Look at Matthew chapter 14, verse 28.
Matthew 14, 28.
Trying to hurry here.
Matthew 14, 28.
And Peter, you know, he gets a chance
where Jesus comes walking on the water,
it's stormy weather, he's on the lake,
and they're afraid, if you remember the story in the Bible,
they're afraid, and then Jesus says,
fear not, it's me, you know,
and then Peter's like, oh, okay, you know, whatever.
You know, he's not as freaked out anymore
because he's, it's like, oh yeah, it is Jesus.
And then verse 28 says, and Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come out unto thee on the water.
And he said, come.
And when Peter was come down out of the ship,
he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
So he's actually, his faith is enough
where he actually gets out and he starts walking.
And mind you, this isn't calm lake,
this is white caps and stormy weather
and wind blowing and crazy, right?
But when he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid, and beginning to sink,
he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
And immediately, Jesus stretched forth his hand
and caught him and said, oh, thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt?
See, we have our times to step out,
and Peter did step out.
He was, he had faith for a second,
but then he was just like, ah, the storming, raging,
you know, wind and the water, it freaked him out.
But, you know, we go through times also
when we, you know, we're full of faith,
but then there's a storm going on around us,
there's crazy situations going on around us,
and then we get freaked out, too.
And we lack faith.
But Jesus is saying here, oh, thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt?
Hey, we gotta get to the point where we don't do that,
where we get through this part of the test,
because the storms of life will come.
The storms will rage against us.
Hard times will come, because that's just how this life is.
And as much as we hate it, as much as we hate to see
people have, you know, hard times in their life,
hard sickness, children pass away,
parents, family members pass away,
you know, those things are awful.
And, you know, maybe people lose their job
or lose their home, or, you know, people get injured
or have health issues, just, I mean, there's just,
this life is just full of pain and heartache,
and a lot of times, there's a lot of greatness
that's in our life, too, but this world
is a sin-riddled world.
And, you know, we're gonna go through these storms.
And this is, you know, this is like a lesson.
Hey, Jesus is gonna get us through the storm.
He's like, why did you lack faith?
Because Jesus is right there to grab his hand,
as he's sinking.
But it's kind of like the story that we're in right here.
They had to take that first step.
And we might think, oh, big deal,
they had to put their sandal in the water.
But you don't know what that river looked like.
I mean, I can swim pretty good,
but not so good that I'm just gonna jump
into some cold water that might take me off
and I die in.
Because I'm not stupid, either.
So, but, I'm not saying they're stupid,
but they did have to take that first step, didn't they?
So, and it could be, you know,
we failed to tell someone about Jesus,
or we failed to act in faith in certain situations.
But when we lack boldness, or when we get too nervous,
or whatever to act on our faith,
the great thing about God is that
he does always provide us a lot of second chances.
So I guess it would be more than second chances
to be like third, fourth, fifth, sixth chances
to act on our faith.
Because our faith does fail.
And even if it's something that's little,
it still fails.
But you know what, there's a lot of times
when we get to, you know, exercise our faith as well.
My last point, and I'll try to make this really quick,
look at verse 14.
God, our faith affords God an opportunity
to demonstrate his power.
I mean, you think about in the New Testament
when he says, you know, he went to certain places,
but he did not much because of their unbelief.
You know, and God with his people,
if we have a lack of faith,
he's probably not gonna do a lot of great things
in our life if we lack faith too.
And so we need to have faith in our lives
that not everything's doom and gloom all the time.
Have some faith that some things are gonna be put
in your favor because God likes to show
and demonstrate his power when his people believe
that great things are gonna happen.
You know, maybe it won't be like you see something
in the Old Testament or something in the New Testament
that's just like a miracle that everybody sees,
but it's still a miracle nonetheless
that he gets you out of some crazy financial situation
or maybe he just lets you skip jury duty.
That's a blessing because they'll convict,
they want you to say that you'll convict under one witness.
I just had jury duty, I didn't get to skip it this time,
but I've gotten to skip it multiple times before that,
but now I know.
Soon as the first thing I do when I walk in,
I'm gonna go, I won't convict under one witness, let me go.
But I'm just saying that like God will demonstrate,
that had nothing to do with it,
but God will demonstrate his power to you.
He'll demonstrate and do great things for you
if you just have a little bit of faith.
Look at verse 14, it says,
And it came to pass when the people removed
from their tents to pass over Jordan,
and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant
before the people, and as they that bear the ark
were common to Jordan, and the feet of the priests
that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water.
So they barely just put their foot in the water.
For Jordan overfloweth all his banks,
all the time of harvest.
So it's telling us how the water is.
That the waters which came down from above stood
and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam,
that is beside Zareton.
That's about 20 miles upstream approximately.
And those that came down toward the sea of the plain,
even the salt sea failed and were cut off.
So the sea, the dead sea further down
were just completely cut off.
There was no more water coming to it.
And the people passed over right against Jericho.
Now think about this also.
Jericho knows that they're coming.
They can see out their windows if they have windows,
or they can just see outside the walls of the city
if they're standing on the walls.
They're watching this happen and they see the waters
cut off, the Ark of the Covenant in the middle of the water
once they get out into the middle and then all this army
of thousands and thousands of soldiers
walking across on dry ground.
God did that on purpose.
God had a purpose for doing this
and for it to be at the time of harvest
when normally they would have to struggle
to get across that water in all these boats,
but God didn't let them have to do that.
He's just like, I'm gonna show you my power now.
Their faith, all they had to do is dip their toe
in the water and God just like whoosh,
just stopped the water from flowing
and allowed them to walk over.
It is a great miracle.
It might not seem like it's the Red Sea,
but there's a difference.
There's a whole city watching this happen.
There's a whole city watching this happen
and their hearts probably just melted with fear
as they saw this because the point is
is that this army's coming for them next
and they realize the children of Israel
didn't block that off of stones.
You can dam a river,
but that was a supernatural damming of the river.
Look at verse 17, it says,
and the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan
and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground
until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.
So when the people exercised their faith,
it wasn't just the people.
It wasn't just the priests had to lead the way.
Joshua had to tell them what to do,
but the Lord, they're fixing their eyes on the Lord
and then the priests do what they do
and then the people obey the command.
They picked up their tents, they rolled up their camp,
they all walked across just like they were told to do.
Everything was done decently and in order.
Everything was done by the leadership
and they followed God in doing what he said to do
and walked over this place that was a raging river
a few seconds ago.
And so when we see, when God can see our faith,
he wants to do great things in our lives.
He wants to do great things before us.
So when we keep our eyes on the right things,
then Israel, when we keep our eyes on the right things,
God will get us through the storms.
When we don't focus on the raging rivers around us,
but we keep our focus on God and on the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's gonna do great things in our life
and get us through the tough times that we have ahead
because we all have tough times ahead, don't we?
So Israel was to focus on the righteous ark,
not the raging river.
And sometimes it is hard for us to maintain our focus
when the river is raging,
but when we're going through the storms of life,
the main focal point,
and what was the focal point of the chapter?
The ark, right?
When we focus on the right things,
God will do great things
and keep us through the storms of life.
Let's pray.
Thank you so much for this great chapter
in Joshua chapter three.
Lord, I pray that you'd help us as your people to,
Lord, to just step out in faith.
And there's just so many areas in our life
that we can do those things and step out in faith.
I pray, Lord, that you'd help us
in those areas of our life where we lack faith.
And Lord, I pray that you'd help us to trust in you more
so that you can do more great and mighty deeds and acts
and show yourself mighty through our faith, Lord, in you.
Pray you'd help us in all these aspects
of faith in our life.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Green.
106.
The first verse.
Together on the verse.
Oh, abide with me,
Fost, most eventide.
The darkness deepens,
Abort with me, abide, When other helpers fail and comforts flee.
Help of the helpless will abide with me, Swift to its cause, ebbs of life's little day.
As joys grow dim, its glories pass away, Change and decay in all the round I see.
O thou who changes not, abide with me, I need thy presence, every passing hour.
Wart what thy Greek can foil the tempters for, Who, like thyself, my guide and stake can be.
Through cloud and sunshine, go, abide with me.
O thou thy cross, before my closing eyes, Shine through the lumen, point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee, In life and death, O Lord, abide with me.
Thank you for listening today and I thank you.